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Oyster Bay gay couple denied marriage license

BY SUSANA ENRIQUEZ | susana.enriquez@newsday.com

April 29, 2008

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About five dozen people stood in a steady rain outside the Oyster Bay clerk's office yesterday, holding signs and chanting, "Let Dan and Lee Marry," as an East Hills gay couple applied for a marriage license.

Dan Pinello, 58, and Lee Nissensohn, 50, walked in at 3:30 p.m. and when they walked out nearly two hours later, they each had a ticket for trespassing.

The two men had been prepared to be arrested to make a point about the need for a law in New York that would allow same-sex marriage. But the couple relented and agreed beforehand with town officials to leave once they were ticketed.

"We are law-abiding citizens," said Pinello, a government professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "We pay our taxes. We have no other choice left."

Town Clerk Steven L. Labriola, standing next to Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto, refused to issue the license, telling the couple he was "precluded by law" from doing it.

"We're not trying to make statements here, we're trying to do our jobs," he said later.

The goal of the couple's "act of civil disobedience" - as they called it - was to persuade Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) to pressure State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) to take a bill that would allow same-sex marriage to the Senate floor for a vote.

A Marcellino spokeswoman has said the senator supports state law, which says marriage is between a man and a woman. Bruno has said he is against the bill.

The bill, which was co-sponsored by the couple's own senator, Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), remains in the judiciary committee.

The men, who have been together for 13 years, refused to leave the building at closing time, 4:45 p.m., when three Nassau County police officers took them into a room and handed them appearance tickets.

Their supporters were mostly people who didn't know the couple. But the men had written them letters, asking for their support in lobbying their representatives.

Judith Alexanderson, who received one of the thousands of letters, said she was disappointed in Marcellino.

"The time has come - equal rights for everyone," said Alexanderson, a retired middle school teacher from Syosset. "Times have changed. You can't be stuck in your ways."

Pinello and Nissensohn said they were touched by the show of support.

"For strangers to show so much devotion, not only to us, but to our cause, is wonderful," said Pinello.

The couple is scheduled to appear in Fourth District Court in Hempstead on June 9.

Holding the pink copy of his ticket and looking at the drenched crowd, Nissensohn, a dentist with a practice in Roslyn, said, "This shows there's a universal need to pursue this further."

WHERE THE LAW STANDS

New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled in 2006 that the state constitution does not give same-sex couples the right to be married.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Since 2004, Massachusetts has been the only state to allow same-sex couples to marry.

Although the state has a law that couples who cannot marry in their home state cannot marry in Massachusetts, that may not be enforceable because the state's highest court ruled it illegal to discriminate against same-sex couples.

CIVIL UNIONS

Civil unions recognize same-sex unions, but do not give gay couples the same rights as married couples.

In 2000, Vermont became the first state to allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. Since then, Connecticut (2005), New Jersey (2007) and New Hampshire (2008) have allowed them.

DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS

Domestic partnerships recognize same-sex relationships, but they do not give gay couples all the legal rights conferred on married couples.

Several states have domestic partnership laws: In Maine (2004) and Washington (2007), same-sex couples have limited rights. In California (2005) and Oregon (2008), partners have nearly all the same rights as married couples.